32 Minutes
by TisZiny
Summary: The Doctor was dying, truly dying, but he had made a promise a long time ago, and he was going to do everything he could to keep it. So he put on his suit and top hat and found his River Song. He still had to take her to Darillium.  SPOILERS FOR 6.08 LKH


**32 Minutes**

The TARDIS knew where to go. The TARDIS knew exactly where and when and he didn't question it at all, instead, once he had struggled into his top hat and tails he stood, forcing himself to be collected, to put one foot in front of the other, to breathe slowly and evenly. With a great effort, the Doctor walked from his ship and straight ahead, to a different blue door, the same blue as the TARDIS behind him, one that lead to a house he knew was River Song's.

He knocked against it with his cane and almost immediately it swung open, "Hello Sweetie," River beamed at him, "What trouble have you got for me this time?" and she ran past him without waiting for an answer,

The Doctor followed this gorgeous woman into his TARDIS and grinned, "You know where to go, old girl," he told the ship, and she began to fly by herself, sending them through the vortex before landing with her familiar wheezing engines,

"Shall we do diaries?" River asked pulling hers from seemingly no where and flicking through it, "Crash of the Byzantium, have you done that?"

"I've done the Byzantium, yes," the Doctor smiled, "And Demon's Run, Utah, the Pandorica..." He smiled and she ran too him, grabbing the lapel of his black jacket and kissing him soundly. He kissed her back, holding her as close as possible, but, he hadn't time, so he pulled back and opened the door, "Darillium," he murmured to her, "I thought you might like to see the Singing Towers,"

River laughed melodically, and hand in hand with her Doctor she skipped out of the ship and beamed, spinning around and taking in the miraculous view of the towers shooting up into the lavender coloured sky. They were made of crystal and shone brilliantly in the golden sun, sparkling and singing everyday they existed. Each day brought a different song, with different light and different colours in the sky. Each day was more beautiful and more miraculous than the last.

"Oh Sweetie!" she beamed, "I love it!" she spun around trying to see this world from every angle, and lost balance, falling into the Doctors arms.

"Careful, Song," he teased,

"Ever the gentleman," River smiled as he helped her back to her feet, "Always there to catch me when I fall."

He smiled, "Always,"

She laughed and stroked his lapels, "You scrub up well too," she flirted, "I've always loved you in suit,"

"Oh really?" he asked, "you're not going to shoot this hat, then?"

"Oh no," River told him, "In fact, I rather like this hat," and she lifted it from his head, placing it gently over her mane of copper curls,

He kissed her, he couldn't help it. He had barely twenty minutes left to live, could you really blame him for wanting to make the most of it?

River moaned against him, her hands running through his hair, "Your hair's shorter," she frowned, pulling at it gently, "You've cut it,"

"Don't you like it?"

River bit her lip, holding back a smile, "Oh I love it no matter how long it is," she pecked his lips, "What about me? How do I look?"

The Doctor grinned, "That hat most definitely suits you,"

"Thank you Sweetie," she laughed, taking it off, "But I think it's better suited to you," and she placed it back onto his head with a smile, "it won't do me much good in the Libray after all,"

"The Library?" the Doctor choked out,

"Yes, the planet, it's been empty for years, I'm heading an expedition there, we leave in a week." She smiled in excitement of her upcoming adventure but saw the Doctor's face and immediately the smile slipped away, "Sweetie?"

The Doctor swallowed, quickly wiping away the tears that had been threatening to slip from his eyes, "I have something for you!" He exclaimed, making it very clear he would not tell her what was wrong, "In the TARDIS, come on!" and he moved quickly back into the blue box, relying on the cane a little more than necessary.

"Oh?" River followed him quickly, and watched curiously as the Doctor pulled something from the console and threw it to her. She caught it easily and carefully looked at it, "A Sonic Screwdriver?" she asked,

"Slightly adapted from an old one of mine, see here, it has Dampers," he told her pointing out the small setting, "and here, Red Settings."

River stared at it, "This is for me?"

"Yes," he smiled at her, "Do you like it?"

"I love it, oh my love, thank you," she kissed him tenderly, and he smiled against her lips,

"I love you River Song." He told her, "I want you to know that. I've always loved you."

She cut him of with a soft kiss, "I know, my love. I've known since the day I met you."

He shifted uncomfortably, stepping away from her to the console, flicking a switch as he spoke. "I have, there's something I need to do now River, you can't stay, I'm sorry."

"So soon?"

"I'm sorry." He repeated, "But you'll see me again."

"I look forward to it," she smiled, and she joined him, helping him fly the TARDIS back to her home.

They landed the second they'd left and River stepped out with a smile, the Doctor was about to set off when he heard her call out his name and he looked sharply too her, and his sadness was mirrored in her eye,

"I love you." she told him,

"I know."

And the door swung closed behind her.

"You will be dead in eleven minutes." The voice interface of Amelia spoke the moment River had left and the Doctor sighed.

"Okay," he heaved, "Off we go. Take me to her," The TARDIS shot through the vortex silently this time, and when the Doctor stepped out he found River, or rather, Mels, checking herself out in a mirror talking to who _appeared_ to be Amy.

"You killed the Doctor," 'Amy' said, "On the orders of the movement known as the Silence and Academy of The Question, you accept and know this to be true?"

"Quite honestly I don't really remember, it was all a bit of a jumble." Mels said with nonchalance, and suddenly a blue light burst from 'Amy's' eyes and hit her, causing Mels to jump back, wincing and exclaiming in pain, "_Get off me!_"

"Sorry!" The Doctor cut in, leaning against the TARDIS smartly, "Did you say she killed the Doctor? _The Doctor?_" The ray vanished and the two women turned to look at him as he asked, "Doctor who?"

"You're dying and you stopped to change?" Mels scoffed,

"Oh you should always waste time when you don't have any! Time is not the boss of you, rule 408." And he continued about his day, as he would any other, he made sure Amy and Rory were safe and explained out loud their current situation, making time to banter, albeit one sidedly, with Mels as he did so.

"Argh!" He fell to the floor and struggled, pushing against his cane, trying to get back to his feet, "Sorry! Leg went to sleep; just had a quick left leg power nap, forgot I had one scheduled. Actually; better sit down, I think I heard the right one yawning." He sat on the steps and stretch out his leg, Mels took this as a chance to get a way and ran for the door, but the Robot Amy caught her with the blue ray once more and the Doctor was quick to exclaim, "Don't you touch her, do not harm her in any way!"

He spent his last minutes saving Mels, saving River, from hell. Telling her who she was, who she could be and successfully convincing her to save the lives of her parents. He lay with just minutes to live and called her too him, murmured in a quiet and choked voice, "Find her. Find River Song, and tellher something from me."

"Tell her what?" and Mels bent over him, so his lips brushed agaisnt her ear in a whisper,

Lifetimes into the future River Song watched the TARDIS fly away from her front door and realised with a jolt where she'd seen that suit before. "Oh my love," she whispered to the air, "My love, I am so sorry." and she remembered those words he had whispered to her on what would have been his death bed,

"Tell her my name, no one but she can ever know," and he'd whispered it so softly River had almost missed it, "and... tell her I love her, forgive her _and I always will_."

She smiled sadly at his words now. But then laughed; she had been right, all those years ago, to tell him, with the faint traces of a laugh laced in her voice, that she was sure River Song, who ever she was, knew. And she did.

Her Doctor loved her, and he would never stop loving her.

But when she had pulled back from him that day, to look into his eyes, she had found them closed. He was dead. She had killed him. And still to this day, regardless of everything, that killed her. But River knew she would spend her entire life making up for that, until the day she died.

**END**


End file.
